First day advance voting figures show a comparable number of voters compared to 2018.
City of Powell River returning officer Chris Jackson said there were 504 ballots cast on the first advance voting day on October 5. There were 499 ballots cast at advance voting on day two (October 8). A third advance voting day was held on October 12, when there were 781 ballots cast.
Jackson said the city sent out 190 mail-in ballots and has received 68 back so far.
“General voting day is October 15,” said Jackson. “Mail-in ballots will be received up until 8 pm October 15. Folks can drop off mail-in ballots in the city hall mail slot by the front door anytime.”
Jackson said there are 11,177 electors who can vote, according to provincial voters list numbers.
“The last general election, we had 485 ballots cast on the first advance voting day, so we are tracking pretty close this time,” said Jackson. “This year is the first we’ve ever added in a Saturday advance voting before general voting day so we don’t have any numbers to compare.”
Jackson said that in 2018, the advance voting represented 26 per cent of the total turnout numbers, with the trend showing that more people are voting at advance polls over time.
“It isn’t translating to larger numbers overall, instead, people are choosing to vote at different times,” said Jackson.
According to Jackson, in 2018, 26 per cent of the voters voted in the advance polls, in 2014, it was 17 per cent, in 2011, it was 12 per cent and in 2008, it was 19 per cent.
In terms of overall voter turnout, in 2018, it was 45.4 per cent, in 2014, 44.3 per cent, in 2011, 43.6 per cent and in 2008, 47.6 per cent.
The city is providing free transit for anyone to get to the polls on general election day.
General election day is October 15. Read all Peak election coverage at prpeak.com/2022-civic-election.
